School of Music

BYU Music Students Teach, Conduct Community Orchestra

By Daniel Ng

At times, certain emergencies may force a driver to pull over to the shoulder of a road. These may include an important phone call, a bathroom break for a child, or even a quick cat nap.

Twenty-two years ago, Steven Blaylock, a middle-aged man from Salt Lake City, needed to pull his car over for something much more urgent ─ he had to figure out who was playing such lovely cello music over the radio.

“I heard Ofra Harnoy play some Vivaldi music on KBYU one day and that did it,” said Blaylock whose interest in music began after he heard an acoustic guitar during his mission. “She’s an Israeli-born Canadian cellist. I was so impressed that I called the station and ran down and bought her CD. I realized that I was going to become a cellist one day.”

Unfortunately, Blaylock soon realized his urge to learn the cello would have to wait.

What he hadn’t expected was a wait which would last fifteen long years.

“The problem was there was no way for an adult male to play the cello,” Blaylock said. “Our culture is not designed to teach adults to become string instrument players.”

Throughout his ordeal, Blaylock looked for options and possible instructors who would be willing to teach him but was only met with disappointment and rejection.

“I made some enquiries to a few people but they said they could not teach me,” Blaylock said.

Finally Blaylock’s opportunity to learn the cello eventually came ─ 5,475 days after he first ran down and bought Harnoy’s CD ─ in the form of the Brigham Young University New Horizons Orchestra which he learned of while skimming the paper.

“I found out about the orchestra through a very well-written article in the Daily Herald,” said Blaylock as he recounted the day he would never forget. “It’s exactly what sparked me and caused me to investigate the orchestra. It happened to be the day before my birthday. I considered it a very special birthday present.”

Started in 2003 by Brigham Young Univeristy music education professor Andrew Dabczynski, the BYU New Horizons Orchestra was created and designed to give those in the community over the age of 40 an opportunity to learn or relearn a stringed instrument.

And in the eight years since the orchestra first began accepting musicians, numerous members have pounced on this opportunity of picking up a new skill and hobby later in life.

“The idea of the New Horizons movement began with a colleague of mine, Roy Ernst, who started the New Horizons idea 20 years ago,” Dabczynski said. “The idea is that we often provide students in music education one little opportunity, usually in fifth grade, to begin study of an instrument. And there are virtually no opportunities for that as adults. So, Roy had this idea to provide an opportunity for people who may have had a late desire to play an instrument.”

After working alongside Ernst at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Dabczynski took his idea and added his own component to it when he arrived at Provo and BYU.

Stated simply, Dabczynski noticed that a younger generation of music-lovers could benefit from New Horizons as well.

“I saw a real opportunity when I came to BYU to tweak it a little bit,” Dabczynski said. “I saw the importance of involving our undergrads.”

Dabczynski realized that rather than having him or another professional conduct the orchestra, the task could be managed by the students themselves.

An ideal way of integrating his undergraduate students as the conductors of the orchestra developed quickly as he realized the importance of a “lab” hour for his string workshop class. “It’s the class where my students learn how to teach stringed instruments,” Dabczynski said. “New Horizons for them then became their lab to complement the class.”

According to Dabczynski, the New Horizons environment is great for students who are just beginning to delve into the world of teaching music.

“It’s great for our students to have a first opportunity to teach in a field experience where they are with some very patient and caring adults,” Dabczynski said.

Lindsey Robb, a music education graduate student who is Dabczynski’s teaching assistant, expounded on her professor’s comment by noting that adults are much easier to handle than children for beginning music instructors.

“The people in New Horizons are beginners but they don’t have the discipline problems of young, elementary kids. So the undergrads can practice what they are learning in their classes on a weekly basis in a more suitable environment.”

The practice received by conducting weekly has paid major dividends for many of Dabczynski’s students.

“Every one of my students who is teaching in the field now had some experience at New Horizons,” Dabczynski said. “All of them comment to me and refer frequently to their New Horizon experience as a very fine model of what they needed to become a public school teacher.”

Along with the multiple benefits New Horizons has brought to the undergrads, orchestra members themselves have also loved having the students as teachers.

“We enjoy them and we think they are a lot of fun. We are all parents too,” said Provo resident, Marilyn Laursen, who has relearned to play the cello after originally beginning in junior high. “They’re young and enthusiastic. It’s nice to have that element in our group. We’re not just a bunch of old people.”

Willis Brimhall, the oldest member of New Horizons at 86 years of age, has also been impressed with the instruction provided by BYU undergraduates at rehearsal.

“The instruction here is magnificent,” said Brimhall, who was a teacher himself for 35 years as a professor in the geology department at BYU. “I’m slowing down in my mental process as well as motor skills and feel like I’m a first grade student at times with music. But as long as I’m here, they’re willing to work with me.”

On top of their interaction and student-mentor relationship with a generation that may be 50 years their younger, the ability of learning a stringed instrument at this stage in their lives has been nothing short of a miracle for many members of the orchestra.

Many such as Blaylock, Laursen and Brimhall have been blessed through their participation in the orchestra. Their lives have improved in multiple ways including a spike in social interaction, more confidence in themselves and an increase in cognitive ability.

“It’s really enriched my life like nothing else can and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Laursen said. “I have been encouraging several others to come by just telling them how much music adds to our lives. It keeps our old brains from dying. I hope they will join.”

Along those lines, students and members alike are always looking to convey the message to others that they too can learn and shouldn’t have any excuses when it comes to starting.

“It’s never too late to start developing a talent, especially in the fine arts. If there are opportunities you should take advantage of them,” Robb said. “You may have certain challenges. But music is a really important skill that will always bless your life.”

For those interested in joining the BYU New Horizons Orchestra, information and a registration link can be found at their website.